Extra Stuff

Elastic Love

Love is a little bit like a rubber band. Love, like a rubber band, can bind two things together and hold them fast. Love is elastic, it can be stretched to the limit and still manage to spring right back. Love, like a rubber band, is durable but can also be incredibly fragile. If you stretch the boundaries of another person’s love for you, there’s every chance that it is going to snap. And even if you manage to fix it, tie it back together, that knot is always going to be there, marring what was once whole.

Imagine you and the person you love, are bound together by a giant, invisible rubber band. That band wraps around you both and is made up of everything you share with that other person. Sometimes it can bring you close together, and sometimes you need to walk in opposite directions so the band stretches out and gives you some room. That band is your relationship, your love. In every relationship, there are going to be hardships. The thing about love is that it is never one hundred percent easy, and you can’t ever expect that a relationship is going to be all good, all the time. So you need to be flexible.

Rubber bands have a certain amount of stretch. Sometimes you can push the boundaries and get more give than you thought possible. But if you take that elasticity for granted, you’re going to break it. Love is the same. A lot of things can test the boundaries of your love and your relationship. Everything from money issues to a sudden unexpected death, from insecurities to a lack of trust. When hardships occur, it is ok to need space, a bit of room, a bit of give. The trick is not letting that invisible band of love stretch too thin. Because the minute you do, you weaken it and when it gets too weak, it will inevitably break.
Of course, the elastic band theory doesn’t just apply to romantic relationships. You have elastic bands with every person you know, and some will have more give than others. One of my strongest elastic bands was stretched a bit lately. The very notion that it could have broken, though unlikely, scared me more than I think I really want to admit. Flashes of possible scenarios went through my head, my thoughts going, as they are prone to do, straight to the darkest places. We talked it out, my rubber band person and I, and everything was ok. It was a strong reminder of that which I have already stated here; love is not always easy. But when you get it right, it’s worth every second.